The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Okey Enelamah, has reiterated the Federal Government’s commitment to ending the current economic recession through strategic policies aimed at driving partnership between government and the private sector.
This, according to him, will enhance funding support for the Micro, Small and Medium-scale Enterprises, manufacturing and agricultural sectors.
Enelamah said this in Lagos at the 2016 Annual Investor Conference organised by FBN Capital Limited, the investment banking and asset management subsidiary of FBN Holdings Plc.
In his presentation titled ‘Matching opportunities with patient capital,’ Enelamah emphasised the importance of government partnership with the private sector in order to move the nation’s economy forward.
The minister said despite the recession, Nigerians should see the economy from a positive perspective and focus less on the negative side of the recession, adding that the oil price crash had exposed the structural deficiency in Nigeria’s large and thriving economy.
He said, “Countries in difficulty have used different strategies to strengthen and diversify their economies. That is why Nigeria needs to move away from over dependence on oil. Diversification and growth are key to economic recovery and ensuring a more stable future. Nigeria should have a strong local base of investors because foreigners will always leaves leading to dry up of capital.”
He canvassed practical solutions such as creating the right environment and polices to harness the productivity of Nigerians in order to overcome the inflation challenge in the country.
In order to realise the nation’s diversification and growth plan, he said it was essential to concentrate on an area where Nigerians had advantage and could give them necessary support.
The Head, Equity Research, FBN Capital, Mr. Bunmi Asaolu, and the Head, Macro-Economic Research, FBN Capital, Gregory Kronsten, gave a joint presentation titled, ‘The Economy and Markets’
Kronsten opened the presentation by linking the recession to the fall in the supply of foreign exchange and the lack of a buffer for external reserves.
Asaolu, on his part, stated that there was a strong double-digit growth in revenue and profit before tax, and triple-digit growth for payment after tax, and that close to half of the of the PBT derived were from foreign exchange-related gains.
The annual FBNQuest conference, which is now in its sixth year, provides a forum for investors to interact with leaders of the economy, key policy makers in government and senior executives of leading corporate institutions.
